1. Field
The disclosure relates generally to communication protocols and more particularly to communication systems for providing an interface for messages between applications in a network. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to identifying protocols used in messages received at universal ports for an enterprise service bus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An enterprise service bus (ESB) is software that provides a connection between applications in a network. An enterprise service bus provides connections between applications within a same computer. An enterprise service bus provides connections between applications located on remote computers. The enterprise service bus is used to connect applications so that the functionality and data of one application can be shared across all applications connected to the enterprise service bus.
The enterprise service bus enables applications to communicate and send messages back and forth to each other. For example, a requesting application may request data from a provider application. The enterprise service bus receives and forwards the request to the provider application. In response, the provider application sends a message to the requesting applications. The message is received by the enterprise service bus and forwarded to the requesting application. In this manner, the enterprise service bus provides communications between applications.
The enterprise service bus may also adapt messages for use by the applications. For example, the requesting application may use a one communication protocol and message format while the provider application uses a different communication protocol or message format. The enterprise service bus upon receiving a message from the provider application may modify the message into a form that may be used by the source application. For example, the enterprise service bus may convert the communication protocol used in the message into a communication protocol that can be interpreted by the requesting application.
However, multiple different protocols may be used in a network. For the enterprise service bus to be able to handle all the messages sent in the network, the enterprise service bus needs to be able to use each of the different protocols used in the network. For the enterprise service bus to handle messages using multiple different protocols, large amounts of code are used by the enterprise service bus. The use of large amounts of code may be costly to develop and maintain.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a method and computer program product, which take into account one or more of the issues discussed above as well as possibly other issues.